After an image was uploaded to a Chinese forum site, rumors are swirling that Sony may be working on a 6.44-inch phablet to take on devices like the Galaxy Note and Huawei’s new 6-inch Ascend Mate. But at a half inch larger than the Huawei and just a half inch short of the Nexus 7, Galaxy Tab 7, and Kindle Fire, it’s quite possible Sony isn’t building this device to get in on the phablet action.

It could be 2013’s Tablet P — except this time around Sony may be choosing to go with a more widely-adopted form factor for its sub-10-inch tablet and ditching the crazy dual-screen clamshell. This new 6.44-inch Sony would make an excellent addition to the Xperia line, slotting in below the Xperia Z Tablet and above the 5-inch Xperia Z phone.

Sony may well be building a device that’s a little bit more pocketable than the Nexus 7. Chances are good that it would also feature the same splash-resistance and dust-proof qualities as the other newest members of the Xperia line-up. And since Sony managed to cram a full 1080P display into the 5-inch Xperia Z, a 6.44 inch tablet with the same resolution seems like a safe bet, too.

At the end of the day, whether this device is a phablet or a straight-up tablet is down to semantics. When companies are churning our devices around the six-inch mark that have cellular connectivity built in, the label that gets applied is down to the user. What you or I might call a tablet is probably just a phone to someone like Tyson Chandler.

Additional rumblings say there’s an announcement coming at Mobile World Congress 2013. With Samsung set to show off the Galaxy Note 8.0 there, Sony may not be far behind.